Youngstown commission votes no on Royal Oaks request

By David Skolnick | May 17, 2017 at 12:05a.m.

YOUNGSTOWN

The planning commission recommended city council reject a request from an East Side bar/restaurant to vacate a portion of Lansing Street for an outdoor patio.

Tuesday’s rejection came because Fire Chief John J. O’Neill Jr. said closing the road would cause a delay in response time to houses and businesses on the streets behind the Royal Oaks Bar & Grill at 924 Oak St.

Those houses and businesses “require Lansing as our quickest and easiest means of access,” O’Neill wrote in a letter to the commission. “Although ‘going around the block’ may appear to be a minor delay,” it “is a delay nonetheless.”

“More troubling is [other fire] trucks arriving for a structure fire that will be coming from the east will have greater delays,” O’Neill wrote.

The final decision rests with council, which rarely overturns the commission’s recommendations.

The commission initially heard the Royal Oaks request for a 50-by-188-foot space for an outdoor patio at a March 21 meeting. Its members decided to postpone a vote until it could hear from the fire and police chiefs. There weren’t enough commission members at an April 18 meeting for a quorum, postponing the vote until Tuesday.

Police Chief Robin Lees wrote in a letter to the commission that “there is ample access” from other streets to the “limited number of occupied homes in the affected area,” and had no issue with vacating Lansing.

Also, the commission recommended council allow a tattoo parlor to open at 2627 Market St. in the city’s uptown area.

Youngstown Tattoo Co. will open in a month if council approves it, said Rick Pine, its owner.

The property has been vacant for at least a dozen years, he said.

Pine said he plans to spend about $7,000 to $8,000 to renovate the building.

“Why not take an abandoned building in uptown and bring it back to life?” he said.

It’s the second tattoo parlor recommended by the commission to open in the past two months. It also gave the go-ahead to DNA Studios at 137 Lincoln Ave. on March 21.